The rivalry between Juventus and Napoli stems from a historicalregional rivalry betweenNorthern Italy andSouthern Italy, of which the clubs' respective home cities of Turin and Naples are major metropolitan and economic centers.[2] The rivalry started to gain more attention in the 1980s when Napoli became league contenders.[2]
Juventus won the1985–86 Serie A title with star playerMichel Platini, six points clear of third placed Napoli. Thefollowing season, Napoli won their firstscudetto with star playerDiego Maradona, three points ahead of second placed Juventus, the first – and only – Southern Italian team to win the league. Napoli won another, and final title in1989–90. After that time, in the 1990s, Juventus shared success withMilan in regards toscudetti, as Napoli started to decline.
In1997–98, Napoli were relegated toSerie B after winning only two matches.[3] By August 2004, Napoli was declared bankrupt.[4] Film producerAurelio De Laurentiis refounded Napoli under the name "Napoli Soccer", and were placed in the2004–05 Serie C1.[5] Thefollowing season, they secured promotion to Serie B and De Laurentiis bought back the name "Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli" in May 2006.[6] After one season back inSerie B, Napoli were promoted to Serie A, along with that season's Serie B champions, Juventus, after thebianconeri had been relegated theprevious season and had their two most recent league titles stripped because of involvement in theCalciopoli scandal.[7][8]
The rivalry again intensified in the 2010s with Napoli's 2–0 win over Juventus in the2012 Coppa Italia Final, Juventus captainAlessandro Del Piero's last game for Juventus.[9] Between2011–12 and2016–17, Juventus won each league title, with Napoli finishing in at least the top five in each of the seasons. The summer before the 2016–17 season, Argentine forwardGonzalo Higuaín became the third highest football transfer of all-time and highest ever transfer for an Italian club,[10] when he was signed by Juventus for €90 million from Napoli.[11] Higuaín jerseys were burned in the streets of Naples.[2] Since Higuaín joined Juventus in 2016, Napoli fans are not allowed to travel to Turin for Juventus match-ups and vice versa.[12] That season, Juventus paid many fines and had a partial stadium ban because of the repeated chant: 'Vesuvius wash them with lava.'[2] On 22 April 2018, Napoli fans were allowed to travel to Turin, but not those from theCampania region of Italy, where Naples is located.[13] Napoli won the match 1–0 with a 90th-minute header fromKalidou Koulibaly to close the gap to one point behind Juventus in the league table.[14] Despite this, Juventus ended up winning the2017–18 title, four points ahead of second placed Napoli, extending their record-breaking run of consecutive championships to seven.[15]
•Total: Juventus with65 higher finishes, Napoli with14 higher finishes (as of the end of the 2024–25 season). No head-to-heads in 14 seasons, since Napoli was inSerie B. Another one, the 2006–07 season, took place in theSerie B, with Juventus finishing first and Napoli second.
.svg){kind=logo}
.svg)
